Rinse aid leaks into the dishwasher when the door is closed

For most dishwashers, there will be port on the door. Usually it will be near the detergent dispenser. On mine, the two items are in one grey plastic enclosure. The rinse aid port is on the right side of the area as you look at the dishwasher door from the front of the dishwasher. Look for a knob surrounded by a few numbers and a few symbols/words. In one direction, the dispenser will be closed; no rinse aid will be released. Turn the knob fully in the other direction, it's open and the cover can be pulled up to allow for refilling the dispenser.

I hope this helps. Please add a comment with your dishwasher's make and model number for more information.

Cindy Wells

Suds in a dishwasher usually come from using too much soap or the wrong kind. Soap can build up over times causing problems. First start a cycle.Do not add detergent or any dishes.When it starts washing, pour a cup of vegetable oil directly into the tub. This will cut the existing soap suds. You may need to try this a couple time before the dishwasher will drain. After all suds have been removed, load you dishwasher and start a cycle filling the detergent cup up half way. If it goes through the cycle with no problems, you should be all set. Still have the problem? A rinse aid dispenser that dispenses too much rinse aid will also cause the dishwasher to suds up. You can remove the dispenser from the door, flush it out and reinstall. Make sure you turn the circuit breaker off before taking the door apart. After rinsing it out, do not add rinse aid. Try the dishwasher and see if the problem goes away. I've seen people accidentally put liquid dish detergent in dispensers too. A dishwasher that has suds is apt to leak. Fix your suds issue and you most likely will fix you leak

the rinse aid compartment has to be one of the biggest things in your unit. it helps with drying process or you will have wet dishes, helps with spots, and also with the cleaning process, this is what you can do . add jet dry or rinse aid not soap .fill compartment then close door ,then raise and lower door 3times then open the compartment door and add more repeat this process until you cant add anymore. this will pull all of the air out of the dispenser and allow you to fully fill compartment . the light should go off .

Make sure the cup is screwed in.

The short answer... NO. But, be careful... There are a lot of older Maytag dishwashers that were recalled due to rinse aid dispenser leaks causing a fire hazzard. Check here: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07094.html

If your unit is covered under the recall the entire inner door will be replaced and you won't have to worry about cleaning the dispenser.

Unfortunately there is no easy way to completely get the detergent out of the rinse aid reservoir in one quick method, short of taking the inside panel off the door.

However, I would try a simple way to flush it out. With the door open almost al the way open, pour warm/hot water into the rinse aid fill hole and keep pouring until you start to get clear water coming out. The water will be flowing back out the fill hole you're pouring the water into and should just flow down the door panel into the dishwasher tub. Try to keep the door about 10-15 degrees up from all the way open to let the water get in the rinse aid reservoir.

Just pour the water in slowing so you don't agitate the mixture and you should be able to get it running clear in 5-10 minutes. It could take a gallon or so of warm/hot water to accomplish this, but it will flush it.

When you'r done, just put the dishwasher into a rinse cycle to pump out the water and soap, etc. You may have to run a full cycle afterwards to get rid of any excess detergent in the tub.

Hope this helps and best regards!

It might seem silly, but you open the front load fully, so that's it's lying flat and then you pour the rinse aid over the holes in the near left hand corner (where you might otherwise think you have to open the trap door for the rinse). The rinse aid will flow quite neatly into the reservoir and hey presto, once it's full (you'll know it's full because it'll start to back up and overflow) you're back in business. No more annoying rinse aid light!

fill the small reservoir with the rinse aid to the top
it keeps glasses from spotting

I did the same thing with my Maytag dishwasher, several times actually, before realizing I was putting blue dish soap in the rinse aid compartment which then wouldn't empty. Then my Maytag started making ominous noises during the rinse cycle (appliance guy said it was "cavitation" noise).

Appliance guy wanted to replace the whole detergent/rinse aid compartment but since he told me the noise was probably caused by the dish soap stuck in the rinse aid compartment, I decided to try to get rid of it first. Here is the method that worked for me; it took most of a day but saved me parts & labor:

1. Get some white vinegar--I used nearly a quart.
2. Fill the rinse aid compartment to brim with the vinegar (overfill) but don't put cap on
3. Raise the dishwasher door slowly until the vinegar drains into the lower part of the chamber (at least this is how my Maytag worked)
4. Agitate the contents as best you can by rapidly shaking the dishwasher door up & down.
5. I also used a small plastic medicine dropper jammed into small openings on each side of the rinse aid compartment to agitate the vinegar by squeezing air into them.
6. Drain the compartment by closing the dishwasher door (move it to full vertical)--vinegar will drain into the bottom of the dishwasher.
7. Repeat above steps a couple times, then fill again w/vinegar, put the cap on and let it stand for awhile. Then drain and repeat the whole routine several times.
8. Blue-colored vinegar will come out which is a good sign (or whatever color your dish soap was).
9. After awhile, I started pouring generous amts of very hot tap water thru the rinse aid compartment, alternating with white vinegar. (No reason you can't use hot vinegar also.)
10. Eventually, all the blue stuff came out & the see-thru levels of the rinse aid compartment were completely clear/empty.
11. Run the dishwasher (I decided to not put any rinse aid in). I got some overfoaming (from the washed out soap) the first time I ran it which I probably could have remedied by adding more vinegar & possibly salt, but the noises were gone!
I just ran the cleaned out dishwasher a 2nd time & it was back to its quiet self with no overfoaming.

Takes some patience but hey, beats a big repair bill!!

not good there is no way to drain it out. you might be able to take the door apart and take off the rinse aid reservoir and clean it out